Discoveries from Germany World Cinema

One of the first epic films made in Austria, as in some of the similar Cecil B De Mille entries, a fusion of a biblical story with a modern update.

Sebastian is struggling with the problem of still not having a girlfriend at the age of 21. He seeks advice from his grandfather and a therapist, but neither really helps him.

This filmed version of Strauss' shocker features Teresa Stratas as opera's most depraved teenager, and she's as perfect a Salome as one would ever hope to see or hear. Stratas inhabits the role, exploring the character's sensuousness as she vainly woos Jochanaan, her venomous hatred when she's rejected, the crazed look in her eyes when she demands his head--on a silver platter, no less. Such complete identification with a role, especially of a character so malignant helps make this 1974 Salome stand out among the many fine DVDs of the opera.

Charlotte Schmutte, a Bible-thumping mousie type, runs a baggage taxi service on the tiny island of Helgoland. When she gets a glimpse of ex-prostitute Ayse on the jetty, she thinks an angel has landed; a herald of Judgement Day... In fact, Ayse is an ex-prostitute who's come to claim her inheritance: Horst, a regular costumer, has left her his entire fortune, which consists mainly of a greasy dockside snackbar.

Hidden in the wooded mountains on the west coast of Japan lies the small Zen monastery Antaiji. A young woman sets off to immerse herself through autumn, winter and spring in the adventures of monastic life. The young woman is Sabine Timoteo from Switzerland. The abbot of the monastery is Muho Noelke, born in Berlin. An interplay between the philosophy of the Japanese Zen master Kodo Sawaki and the surprises brought forth by everyday life.

Shortly before the celebration of his 95th birthday, Karl Wolter is murdered. Instead of ending their accidental marriage for good on the long-awaited divorce date, Killmer and Kati Biever take up the investigation. The suspects in their case are rather eccentric: the retarded day laborer with the glass eye, a senile chicken baron and Miss Blücher, a housekeeper with an icy stare and a heavy inheritance. During their investigations, Killmer and Kati soon realize that the crime must have something to do with an inglorious event deep in Monreal's past.

Student Markus Schneider works as a courier. Every day he chases through the streets of Berlin on his rollerblades to deliver documents on time. Little does he know that he is being used as a cocaine courier by a gang of corrupt police officers. He is also a convenient scapegoat when the crooks are looking for someone to frame for a double murder.

Lydia Kowalenko is fired from the pharmaceutical company where she has worked for many years because she refused to help cover up the use of a dangerous chemical. Her daughter Katja, however, has no scruples and risks an operation which is more beneficial to her own medical research than to the convalescence of a young patient. Then Katja's only son dies after a car accident. Was he too the victim of a career-minded doctor?

Tore, a young lost soul involved with an underground Christian punk movement, falls in with a dysfunctional family who test his seemingly unwavering faith.

Day in, day out, Mr. Grimm is busy with his job as the Reaper, harvesting people's lives. One day, his monotonous existence is interrupted by the doorbell. It's a little girl. She wants her cat back. Little does she know that she's the next life on Mr. Grimm's list.

13-year-old Becky is not only the eldest sister for her three siblings, but also a surrogate mother, since the actual mother is mainly devoted to alcohol, the constantly running television and changing male acquaintances.

Tania is an actress, 43. Thore is 15, a misfit in a small village at the northern tip of Germany. At the beginning of winter, Tania escapes from her numb life to the village. They meet. She decides to steal him from his parents.

The Silent Revolution is a 1972 German documentary film about molecular biology. The film posits that biologically, man will still be programmed as a hunter and food collector even when there will be nothing to hunt and collect. Evolution is too slow to cope with the rapid changes in our environment, and the countdown of man's survival has already begun. Yet. there may be a chance to influence the steering mechanism of life. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Art student Sarah starts doing Cam-Girl-Sex to pay her rent, but becomes more of a therapist for her clients instead.

Documentary about the process of building tanks in Germany during the early days of World War II.

Pseudo-documentary in the style of "Schulmädchen-Report" (Schoolgirl Report), portraying the lively activities of high-class prostitutes, pimps, and clients in various cities across Germany.

Thea can't pay her bill, so the hotel manager forces her to impersonate a countess to draw business to the hotel. Then Thea and lawyer Michael meet and fall in love but he insists he could marry only a strictly law-abiding woman.

A young theologian tries to stop her brother from going to Ukraine as a volunteer fighter – but his radical decision seems to call her own life plan into question and plunges her into an existential crisis.

A trained theologian with a truck driver's license joins Werner Träsch's team. Former pastor Matthias is surprisingly good at tackling difficult tasks. But he can't hide the fact that he is in trouble for long: His ex-girlfriend Anna makes it impossible for him to see their five-year-old daughter Lotte, despite having joint custody.

Nina and Paul's marriage is over, they are just waiting for an opportunity to teach it their son Tim. During a chance encounter, Nina flirts with Viktor, her son's hockey coach, and goes with him to his house. A decision with serious consequences because Nina is nearly raped, defends herself and kills Viktor in the process. Paul followed the two and witnesses the misfortune, what makes a self-defense situation implausible for others. Agitated, the two drive home without notifying the police. While the investigations begin in the background and there is hardly any other topic in the circle of acquaintances of the other hockey parents, Nina and Paul have to stick together and assort new. Through the confrontation with the events and the solidarity as a "couple of crime" they find each other again in the course of the story. But can they also live with this guilt?

Four-generation story-saga dealing with the decline of a middle-class Lübeck family. The first adaptation of a Thomas Mann book was also Gerhard Lamprecht’s first major film.

In Vienna, the director of a sanatorium is telling writer Kristinus the story of a strange case. The very rich and dandy-esque Baron von Stroom had fallen in love with an actress but could not conquer her. One day he acquired a Chinese clay figure of a Mandarin, a talisman whose possessor is said to be able to seduce any woman he desires. As promised, all women's hearts fall to Baron von Stroom. The first is the actress, followed by the wife of the railway king, and then a Princess. Every time the Baron calls out “Man-da-riiiin”, the statue becomes alive ready to make another woman fall in love with his master. But von Stroom soon begins to feel nostalgic for the times when he would conquer the women he desired. However, his attempts to seduce women without the help of his ghostly servant become utterly unsuccessful. Unable to get rid of his devilish servant... Produced one year before The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Mandarin is a predecessor of German expressionism.

A rather brittle high school teacher inherits her uncle's flourishing business, which was primarily involved in the manufacture of sex paraphernalia. In view of the high turnover, she quickly loses her scruples.

Teacher Anna and plumber Clau are in love and expecting a baby. The happy birth is followed by a nasty surprise: Anna's child has dark skin. Everyone can see that Clau cannot be the father. The idyll of the small mountain village and the couple's relationship begin to falter.

With the ascetic grandeur of Carl Th. Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc, Schroeter evokes the visions of Saint Joan, partly through unused footage of Darling and Caven pantomiming in his 1972 film The Death of Maria Malibran. - MoMA

Dr. Victor Wolffenstein, a genius and at the same time devilish doctor, has set himself a huge goal, he wants to become immortal. In the Year 1930 he brews a serum, which is supposed to help him achieve his goal. But it has an unwanted side effect, he becomes immortal but becomes infected with necrosis and the only thing left for him to do is to replace his body parts. Dr. Wolffenstein recklessly starts to harvest limbs from the other villagers, but in the end they overpower him and bury him alive. More than 80 years later, five teenagers are on their way to the biggest Rave party of the year. On their way they get stranded in a small village, due to a car accident and have to wait for repair. The teenagers decide to visit a local discotheque and then the terror begins, Dr. Wolffenstein is back.

When the castle ghost Hui Buh, of all people, is chosen to free the heart of a cursed princess from 1001 Nights together with the clumsy Genie Amira, he and his friends embark on the greatest adventure of his life.

The EU has fallen apart, and in Germany, far-right populists are forming a new government. War is imminent. Jonas has deserted; he and his sister go into hiding at the home of their father, Stuber, whom Jonas has not seen since childhood. But there, the situation escalates. A catastrophe occurs even before the war has begun.

Her self-chosen solitude in the thick forest comes to a sudden end for Noé, when she finds the broken body of a female android. While she slowly approaches the mechanic woman, Noé’s past is revealed and brings up questions about how alike she and the android can become.

The experimental animated film Song of the Flies (El Canto de las Moscas), translates the desolation caused by the violence of the Colombian armed conflict through the poetic voice of Maria Mercedes Carranza (1945–2003) and the audiovisual dialogue between 9 Colombian women. In 24 places, as a transit over the course of a day (Morning, Day, Night) a map of terror is drawn where massacres took place in Colombia in the 1990s. Archival images, the artists’ personal memories and the use of loops and analogue materials bring to life the landscapes ravaged by violence and build a polyphony of memory and mourning, a universal song of pain.

LKA-Zielfahnderin Hanna Landauer and her new colleague Röwer travel to Montevideo to find the couple Tezlaff. They once kidnapped an industrialist and extorted a 10 million ransom. The money has since disappeared, alongside a third unknown hostage taker.

A Swedish village in the 18th Century: the seemingly idyll is disturbed by a group of soldiers they appear to beware their heavily injured comrade from death. Despite of first hospitality the arrivals notice that the villagers are not only devout, it seems that they hide a dark secret. As the mysterious events become more frequent, the suspicion stays inevitable: some villagers seem to believe in another God.

Ex-judge Lena Kalbach has to represent a Catholic priest, of all people, in her first appearance as a lawyer. The priest Lukas Schloss has embezzled a large sum of money and is facing a prison sentence and expulsion from the church. However, Lena discovers that the young priest had good reasons for his illegal actions. The lawyer wants to help him, but it's a difficult task: her husband Friedrich, of all people, is representing the church in this sensitive matter. In this episode of the family series, Michaela May, alias Lena Kalbach, once again amazes viewers with a legitimate form of legal malpractice.

Kathrin Bischoff has a great chance of becoming world champion in figure skating. But not everyone is happy for her. After a vicious attack on Kathrin, her mother and coach Maria hires bodyguard Alex. The threat seems to be over. In top form, Kathrin wins the world championship. Then scandal strikes: cocaine is found in her rival Sabine's locker. Sabine accuses Alex of planting the drugs on her. Kathrin doubts her bodyguard and fires him. The devious assassin has been waiting for just this moment...

A Saracen sultan's disguised son loves an amnesiac Moslem princess.

A biopic of the singer and film actor Joseph Schmidt. The title is a reference to his best-known song and a 1933 film of the same title in which he starred.

Twenty-year-old Dora works as a maid in a hotel and has access to all of the guests' belongings while they are away. This time she is interested in the suitcase of a guest in room 34 ...

In the summer of 1959, as a magazine correspondent, writer and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-75) traveled along the Italian coast. In 1963, he documented the sexual behavior of the Italians. In the winter of 1970-71, he witnessed the hardships of the most impoverished Italian population suffering from the boot of state power. After these three trips, he came to the conclusion that Italian society had changed drastically for the worse over the years.

Rent-a-baby Traffic policeman Leo Fink has two passions: Firstly the revolutionary programme he invented and developed which shall avoid any kind of traffic jam and secondly Vera Becker, head of the traffic guidance department. She, however, ignores him - at least until she sees him carrying a baby. Suddenly, the single woman, otherwise so cool, gets interested in Leo who, in turn, scents that this is his big chance. He is rather sure that he will be able to win her over to his side with the help of the baby and his pioneering plan against traffic jams which he wants to introduce to her in a presentation. But there is a small problem: Little Felix is not his son.

Banker Doris has everything you need for a career except testosterone. Time and again, the young employee is passed over for promotion. Now Philip is put in front of her. The charmer quickly turns out to be a macho pig: first he dismisses Doris' best friend, then he becomes pushy. Only now does the gray mouse finally give him a piece of her mind.

An adaptation of Tennessee Williams' "The Lady Larkspur Lotion" created by Douglas Sirk with the assistance of his film students and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. It depicts the conflict between a dreamy, delusional heroine and her brusque, practical landlady, who wants to kick her out of her apartment.

The phone call from Sybille was usual. Her family didn't even know that this call just started their last fine day...

Half-Italian Gioia loves Max, but leaves her son's son to cheat her as a fiancé. When Mama invites the family to the Italian winery for Grandpa's 80th birthday, the feelings are on the table alongside pasta, pesto and vino, because Gioia happens to meet Max again ...

Some guys try to locate a evil guy's secret diamond mine somewhere in Thailand.